Girl Under a Red Moon: Growing Up During China's Cultural Revolution

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Thanks to The Kid Lit Exchange Network and Scholastic Inc. for the review copy of Girl Under a Red Moon: Growing Up During China’s Cultural Revolution by Da Chen. All opinions are my own. This book was released on September 3, 2019.

This book is a memoir about the injustices faced by many innocent people during the Cultural Revolution in China during the 1960s and 1970s. The main characters are eight-year-old, Da and his thirteen-year-old sister, Sisi. Da and Sisi’s grandfather had his land taken from him and he was sentenced to grueling labor in a work camp. His crime was being a landowner, and there is no room for that in the new communist order in China. Once their grandfather becomes too weak for manual labor, Da and Sisi’s father is ordered to take his place. Sisi and Da must learn to navigate the world around them when it seems like everyone is out to get them.

This book gives a heart wrenching first-hand account of what life was like for some during the Cultural Revolution. Some chapters are difficult to read because they are so heartbreaking, but this is an important story that needed to be told. Scholastic recommends this book for mature readers grades 6 and up, but I would recommend this book for grades 9+. There are some mature topics in this book including rape and graphic descriptions of violence that a middle schooler is just not mature enough to handle. I learned so much from this book, and I highly recommend it. Amazon affiliate link below.